Government Shutdown Likely

With just hours to work out a deal over funding the federal government, it doesn’t look like either side will budge: the Dems believe that any shutdown will hurt Republicans, so why bother resolving anything; all while the Republicans spend their time negotiating with themselves since the Dems have no incentive to solve the problem together.

Obama gave a speech at about 5pm EDT which was so inspiring, the pull quote was, “You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job.” Classy, Mr. President. I’ve had teacher workshops which could easily interpret aspects of that speech as “bullying,” easily sending him on a one-way trip to the main office.

There have been 17 government shutdowns since 1976, lasting between a few days to a few weeks. About one-third of the federal work force gets to sleep-in tomorrow — the “non-essential” personnel (Why are they on the payroll anyway, being non-essential personnel? Just sayin’). Some of those personnel even get to keep some of their perks! The military, the post office, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. will still be functioning.

While maybe gaining a temporary political benefit, ultimately the left may not like what the people see — that on a bare-bones funding structure (only spending revenue collected in taxes each month, c. $200 billion, prioritized to essential functions) we can survive. This may make trillion dollar deficits on stuff we can live without look pretty stupid.